Dear Editor,
Columnist GHK Lall has taken his wild, erratic, and bizarre insults and accusations against American Ambassador, Sarah Ann Lynch to new, unacceptable levels. The insults and accusations have wended their way from boorish and distasteful, to something more cynical, and more consequential.

GHK Lall has now, by implication, accused Ambassador Lynch of unethically meddling in the affairs of Guyana. Moreover, Lall has questioned Ambassador Lynch’s credentials as a diplomat based on her next post at the US Southern Command.
GHK Lall has inverted the historical record with the most astounding revisionism possible. In his latest missive, David Granger is a poor, helpless victim of the Americans.

Here is Lall again – “Our resource curse explains the removal of former President Granger and his group; and his desperate, rearguard actions to stick around in 2020 (KN 6/28/2023).” “Removal of Granger and his group”? Sir, are you in full command of common sense? “Rearguard action to stick around”? Mr. Lall, are you okay up there? Who in the world do you think believes the following – “Ideas about changing the contract signalled the beginning of the end for him [Granger] and his party”? Are you aware that more than 200 ballot boxes from mostly PPP strongholds were not counted in 2015, and this despite strong protests by the President Ramotar and the PPP/C?

Shouldn’t it be that it was the Granger administration that signed the 2016 PSA, and then the same APNU+AFC administration that made a five-month long attempt to steal the election? Shouldn’t it be that if it weren’t for Ambassador Lynch and others, we would have gone back to the PNC glory days of election theft, economic drudgery, and paramountcy of the party, meaning APNU in this instance? Instead, what we get is this from GHK Lall – “Our resource curse explains the energies, bustles, objectives of Her Excellency, US Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch (and like-minded European cronies)” (KN 6/28/2023).

In GHK Lall’s perverted account, Guyana found oil, but the CIA, Exxon, the US military, European diplomats, and specifically Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch, came together as evil spirits and wove imperialist spells over Dr. Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo, who were then “trapped in powerful centrifugal forces that reduced them to puppets and pawns” (KN, 6/28/2023).

GHK Lall’s attack on American and European diplomats, combined with his insults against Exxon executives have taken Guyana to a new, embarrassing low. Further, his attacks against President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo, have become more personal, more malicious, and yes, far more desperate.

Up to very recently, no one took GHK Lall seriously. “Nonsense” is the word most people offer when his writing comes up. I wish it were nonsense because then I won’t have to waste my precious time as I am forced to do right now.
GHK Lall’s writing is part of something larger than himself. What he contributes to is the peripheralization of the PPP/C leadership, which he apparently believes is not fit to rule. Freddie Kissoon and Ravi Dev have addressed this issue in terms of the desperate attempts to preserve a proto-colonial, urban-Christian, upper-middle class hegemony.

Professor Rishee S. Thakur has probably offered the most sophisticated description, explanation, and critique of what he called Anglo-Christian hegemony.
The foundational assumption of this Anglo-Christian hegemony is that only the Georgetown-based creole-intellectual class has the cultural competence, and the cosmopolitan sophistication to govern and represent Guyana.

The task of the Urban-Anglo-Christian project is what I shall call secular evangelism, whereby the Georgetown intellectuals (plus their overseas compatriots – e.g., Alissa Trotz, Melinda Janki, and Nigel Westmaas), want to fully capture the public sphere, usually represented as “civil society” in Guyana. These Moray House types think that Bharrat Jagdeo should go back to Unity, Dr. Ali should go back to Leonora, and Donald Ramotar should be kept at a distance.

The protectors of Anglo-Christian hegemony do not mind rigged elections, economic devastation, or even some political violence. They are so filled with derision for things and people outside of Georgetown and its environs that they are prepared to attack real Westerners – the Western diplomatic community, Western corporations and their executives, and Western states, even if these are the same states that guarantee out national security and territorial integrity.

GHK Lall’s latest melodramatic outburst should be of concern to all Guyanese who cherish democratic values, and who are steadfast in their defense of the institutions and partners that guarantee our path to a more secure future.
Attacking two national leaders, President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo, while praising a Head of State (David Granger) who was knee deep in a sustained election-rigging exercise is just plain wrong.

Similarly, attacking the diplomats who helped to secure our democracy is not only wrong, but shameful. And finally, the infantile attitude to foreign capital and especially investments in our oil and gas sector are exactly that – infantile. GHK Lall owes another round of apologies.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Randolph Persaud